Silver Lake College Welcomes Dr. James Begotka

Silver Lake College welcomes Dr. James Begotka as its director of the management and organizational development program, and assistant business professor.

Dr. Begotka’s career journey prepared him well for his new role, particularly his direct involvement as consultant, trainer and facilitator with organizations of diverse structures and cultures within a variety of industries.

He joined the Wisconsin private four-year liberal arts college system in 2012 as an associate dean of academic affairs at Lakeland College in Plymouth.

Prior to that, Begotka was an employee in the Wisconsin Technical College System. Positions included faculty and staff development coordinator in the staff and organizational development department; associate dean of general studies; faculty/consultant within adult basic education and workplace learning initiatives; and director of learner success.

Dr. Begotka earned his Doctor of Education in organizational leadership and his certificate of advanced graduate studies in organizational leadership from Northcentral University, Prescott Valley, Ariz. He earned his Master of Arts in education-instructional design from Capella University, Minneapolis, Minn., and his Bachelor of Arts degree in social change and development from University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

Dr. Begotka identified his primary niche within organizational learning and development, whether applied to academic, corporate or nonprofit entities, as being in: planning and leading organizational change, process improvement, education and training program design, assessment of learning, evaluation of training programs, and learning delivery.

He has designed and facilitated numerous courses and customized training programs for organizations and institutions, all offered in a multitude of delivery formats.

Dr. Begotka indicated his current quest for new knowledge and skill sets are driven by his keen interests in the relationship of leadership to the performance of individuals and teams; and, studying the impact of workforce development given the context of an ever-growing gap in skills, knowledge, and dispositions needed by organizations to compete in an ever-changing economy and state of hyper-competition.